My parents want to print a 10x13 image from their digital camera but the image dimensions are 3000x4000 pixels?

Question

and the DPI is 96DPI. Is this enough? What is the minimum necessary for a 10x13? There are other images that are 3648x2736 with a DPI of 180, and 5184x3456 pixels and 72 DPI, would either of these work (taking into consideration the trimming necessary to get them to the right aspect ratio). Thanks!

Answer 1

The image is already good enough quality to print at that size. You have a 12 megalpixel image there. You could print it at billboard size and it would still look good.



You don't need to change the PPI. All you need to do is crop the image to a 10:13 aspect ratio.



If you have photoshop or another image editor you can do it yourself. Just make sure you don't resample the image when you crop, which would be disasterous.



The PPI an image is set at is irrelevant. Read this - the Myth of DPI http://www.rideau-info.com/photos/mythdpi.html - all that matters in digital images is the size of the image in pixels.



Others have shown you the maths. 10" x 13" at 300dpi is 3000 x 3900 pixels. 300dpi is the optimum quality for digital prints, but 200 or so is also fine, and the bigger you print an image the less crucial the DPI - because you view large images at a distance - not close up.

Answer 2

As others have noted its a question of doing the maths.



The image dimensions are more easily understood if noted that the original image is in a 3:4 ratio and therefore the image required by your parents will be initially printed in the same ratio - although minor cutting after printing will be needed to produce the 10x13 image they want.



Given the ratio noted above the 13 size will be the 4 factor and this results in the option of 13 x 9.75 or 14 x 10.5 to retain the same ratio of the original image. Either of these sizes is greater than a standard A4 sheet (at circa 12 x 8) and therefore requires printing on an A3 sheet (circa 16 x 12) and consequent trimming to achieve the size required.



Note that since the desired 13 x 10 image is NOT in the same ratio as the original image then you will also have to accept that a portion of the image will be lost (at 14 x 10.5) or there will be excess space (at 13 x 9.75) and the choice will be yours to make.

Answer 3

If you can print the photos at 300 ppi (pro standard), then you should be good. Just divide the height and width of the photo by 300 and you'll get the dimensions in inches. If you have a graphics editing program (gimp, photoshop, etc), you can change the resolution of the photo to see what it will look like when viewed at 1-to-1 (100%). I'd say try not to go under 150 PPI. For me, 96 is way too low, but it depends on what you find to be acceptable.



300 PPI:

3000px x 4000px = 10" x 13.3"



240 PPI:

3000px x 4000px = 12.5" x 16.7"



For reference, the iPad 2 (1024x768) would be about 130PPI (you can see the pixels when you look closely). The new iPad (2048x1536) would be about 260PPI (its hard to see the pixels when you look closely). So it all depends on how close your viewers are going to get. If they aren't going to be close, then its all good. An HDTV looks great at 1920x1080p even at 40", but it depends on how close you get.

Answer 4

A good print is about 300 dpi and the cut down restrict is set one hundred eighty dpi. Do the math and reasonable print from your stolen picture outcome in a four.5 X 3 print and a good could be 2.6 X 1.Eight

Answer 5

3000/10 = 300 pixels/inch



This will print nicely on 10". Crop the width by 100 pixels and you are set to go.